mataki sliding: Amy Denney, Clothes as Art

For Denney, Clothes as Art.

Amy Denney's extensive collection is housed in a breath tauntingly large room with tiered rakes stacked four deep and build-in floor to ceiling wall shelves that accommodate an abundance of boxes. There are several clearly defined labels and photographs indicating contents.

"This is what sold me on the apartment," Denney explains. The closet was pre-existing and fill her art collection to the brim. The rest of her lush apartment is draped in rarities that like-wise have a story behind their acquisition. "I am really inspired by old movies from the 40’s and 50’s. I love Katharine Hepburn and Rita Hayworth,"she says.

Denney is an artist at heart and shows me a repertoire of sketches from an on-going series of a nude woman whose body has evolved into bright swirls of color, whose hair has overgrown into thickets of trees. This nude woman is sphex- like, and I think she can breath under water.

We spend a long time in one corner of the room where a row of bright windows line a wall. This is where stacks of thick bound homemade books and portfolios, paintings and other sources of design ideas lay. There is one book Denney made that details the evolution of Paper Dolls and even has a few of her own designs mixed in. There is a story for each paper doll. There is a story for each piece she collects.

Denney recommends Donna’s Dress Shop and The Lucky Tiger in Saint Joseph as well as several treasures on 39th Street in Kansas City. For quick affordable "funky finds, go to Forever 21." Her love is really the find – the hunt for the find - and she does this at antique and thrift shops.

Her music ranges like her art; touches of nostalgia with emotion and intrigue. "I think I tend to like depressive music," Denney says, "but when I want to shimmy my shoulders and shake my booty, you can't beat Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Pink Ohh, and Lady Gaga!"

The Smashing Pumpkins, Nina Simone, Jeff Buckley, Bright Eyes, U2, The Cure, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Sioux Sie, The Banshees, and The Pixies are among some of her other favorites. We cap the visit off with The Oldies. They remind her of family; "Family vacations, road trips, and listening to the radio.”